4 ms·

I bought a car last year during the covid induced car shortages. The first visit to the dealer, I said what I wanted, he went to the back and got a piece of pap

I bought a car last year during the covid induced car shortages. The first visit to the dealer, I said what I wanted, he went to the back and got a piece of paper with a price and a VIN number, the price matched what the Toyota website said, and I agreed to put down a deposit. The next visit 3 weeks later, I saw the car I was promised, the dealer told me the price which matched the sheet. He gave me the keys for a totally private test drive (he didn’t even come along) and I proceeded to hand over the check and was sent on my way as soon as the DMV paperwork was fulfilled. It was a Toyota dealership in California. They’re not all rotten. I’d happy buy another car from the same salesperson if I was in the market. If I had to guess, dealerships that do fleet sales have less pressure and can treat normal consumers with proper respect.

propogandist 4y ago
Virtually every dealer, for the Japanese brands I am considering, is 2 to 10K+ over MSRP (“market adjustment and dealer adds”) in a 300 mile radius (multiple big metros). These markups are for vehicles they won’t have in stock for months also. Car dealers have discovered they can make huge profits by exploiting the inventory shortage. They’ve also kept some of the most arrogant sales staff (“closers”) who are guaranteed big pay days for every sale. While this isn’t always the case, the days of paying below MSRP appears to be a thing of the past
- Bluecobra 4y ago
  Had a similar experience a few weeks ago, for example a $25,000 Hyundai Elantra was marked up $8,000 over MSRP. All the Hyundai dealers near me are all pulling the same games and don’t post the actual price on their website so you have to waste time traveling there. Luckily for me I had the option to buy out my lease and won’t ever do business with any of these dealers again.
  - propogandist 4y ago
    I came across https://markups.org https://markups.org, in my research, which crowdsources info on dealer markups. It will give you a ballpark if a dealer should be avoided outright. Calling the sales department and asking for market adjustment and dealer adds info for make/model is also recommended. Most sales people, although not all, will disclose rough numbers.
bluedino 4y ago
This summer we looked at a Toyota. They were 8 months out on deliveries but if we bought $1500 worth of dealer prep/warranty we could reserve our car. We went to Honda instead, and paid MSRP. They were only 3 months out, but nobody above us in line wanted the color of the next one that came in so we got it in a month.

propogandist 4y ago

Virtually every dealer, for the Japanese brands I am considering, is 2 to 10K+ over MSRP (“market adjustment and dealer adds”) in a 300 mile radius (multiple big metros). These markups are for vehicles they won’t have in stock for months also. Car dealers have discovered they can make huge profits by exploiting the inventory shortage. They’ve also kept some of the most arrogant sales staff (“closers”) who are guaranteed big pay days for every sale. While this isn’t always the case, the days of paying below MSRP appears to be a thing of the past

Bluecobra 4y ago
Had a similar experience a few weeks ago, for example a $25,000 Hyundai Elantra was marked up $8,000 over MSRP. All the Hyundai dealers near me are all pulling the same games and don’t post the actual price on their website so you have to waste time traveling there. Luckily for me I had the option to buy out my lease and won’t ever do business with any of these dealers again.
- propogandist 4y ago
  I came across https://markups.org https://markups.org, in my research, which crowdsources info on dealer markups. It will give you a ballpark if a dealer should be avoided outright. Calling the sales department and asking for market adjustment and dealer adds info for make/model is also recommended. Most sales people, although not all, will disclose rough numbers.

bluedino 4y ago

This summer we looked at a Toyota. They were 8 months out on deliveries but if we bought $1500 worth of dealer prep/warranty we could reserve our car. We went to Honda instead, and paid MSRP. They were only 3 months out, but nobody above us in line wanted the color of the next one that came in so we got it in a month.